The Orioles cruised to their sixth win during their past seven games June 7, bashing four home runs -- including Mark Trumbo's league-leading 20th -- to flatten the Royals, 9-1. Righty Ubaldo Jimenez gutted through five innings and squirmed his way out of a few jams to notch his first victory in exactly a month.
Those all took a back seat to the real fireworks, though.
The most memorable part of the game was the benches-clearing brawl that erupted in the bottom of the fifth inning. The groundwork was laid in the second, when Royals righty Yordano Ventura threw two straight pitches that came in tight on the Orioles' Manny Machado, leading Machado to glare and yell at Ventura. Machado then flied out to left, and as he made his way down the first base line, he continued to exchange words with Ventura.
The next time Machado came to the plate, in the fifth, Ventura's first pitch -- a 99-mph fastball -- drilled him in the back. Machado immediately stormed toward the mound and began throwing punches at Ventura, who pulled him to the ground. Their Orioles and Royals teammates poured out of the dugouts and joined the fray at the pitching mound. An incensed Machado and Ventura were both pulled out of the scrum, and cooler heads prevailed as the brawl dissipated. Both players were ejected from the game.
